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Sore After A Workout?

Whether you are returning to the gym after the holidays, starting an exercise program, or have raised the intensity of your workouts, you may experience muscle soreness a day or two after your workouts. In this post, I share what to expect, why, and how to best recover to stay on track with your fitness goals.

Do you experience muscle soreness after a workout, perhaps a day or two later? For the most part, this is normal.

‘I pushed myself at the gym and now I am paying for it!‘ Have you said this? It may feel that way, yet it is your body’s way of repairing the damage made during exercise. And it is this repair that stimulates muscle growth. It can be a benefit, not a loss!

‘I can’t walk, or sit down, or get up without discomfort and soreness!‘ Does this sound familiar? Not to worry as long as over a short period, the soreness disappears, and as you take a step, sit, get up, and move it becomes a bit easier each time.

Why am I sore the next day or two after a workout?

Resistance (strength/weight training) exercises that stress your muscles actually create small tears in the muscle fibers, and the muscles need 24-48 hours to heal and repair themselves. If the new session is too soon or too late, there is little improvement in performance and deteriorating performance from over-or-under training may occur.

This soreness refers to DOMS. What is exactly is it?

DOMS stands for Delayed Onset of Muscular Soreness and is pain experienced 24-48 hours after a workout session. The pain is due to the micro-tears of the muscle fibers. Exercise weakens and damages these fibers to get stronger and build. The pain or soreness is your body’s way of telling you it is repairing the damage you caused.

Wikipedia defines its as ” pain and stiffness felt in muscles several hours to days after unaccustomed or strenuous exercise. The soreness is felt most strongly 24 to 72 hours after the exercise. It is thought to be caused by eccentric (lengthening) exercise, which causes small-scale damage (microtrauma) to the muscle fibers. After such exercise, the muscle adapts rapidly to prevent muscle damage, and thereby soreness, if the exercise is repeated”

For some, performing sets of exercises for a specific muscle group equates to some soreness yet for another muscle group much soreness. For me, as an example, when its chest day I always experience DOMS yet when its leg day I may not.

It is temporary. depending on how intense your exercise was, any delayed onset soreness should go away within two to four days.

When to worry?

Any significant muscle soreness lasting longer than 5 days could be a sign of significant muscle damage beyond what is beneficial.

What to do?

1. To reduce DOMS don’t train for impression, have a program that starts slow and progresses.

2. To help relieve the soreness try a massage, light stretching, and Epsom salt bath.

4. By all means, refrain from working the same muscles that are sore until you have the full range of motion again. Adjust your program and focus on workouts that minimize strain on your sore muscles.

5. Rest is important. Adaptive changes occur in muscle within hours and days after a single workout. In other words, muscles grow during rest – when the repair and renewal process takes place. Give sore muscles 1 to 2 days of rest before exercising them hard again. If not, working sore muscles and neglecting rest days can lead to injury which will set you back.

6. Take time to do proper warm-ups and cool-downs.

7. Use a foam roller for self-massage to release muscle tightness. By applying pressure to specific points on your body you are able to aid in the recovery of muscles and in returning them to normal function.